Bose Vavataga 
[Photo: Supplied]
Pacific leaders are being urged to act now on climate change, with Fiji Prime Minister Sitiveni Rabuka warning that the region cannot afford further delays as the world approaches a 1.5-degree Celsius overshoot.
Speaking during the Pre-COP31 tour in Funafuti, Tuvalu, Rabuka states the climate crisis is an existential threat to the Pacific.
He says being in Tuvalu has given leaders a first-hand view of what communities on the frontline are facing.
“Yet now face the imminent overshoot of our most critical target. The Pacific is in no position to settle for inaction. And we will not backtrack on decisions we have all made together. The 1.5-degree limit is scientific, the red line for us all.”
Rabuka says climate finance must also reach communities most exposed to the impacts of climate change.
He reiterated that Pacific communities are not asking for charity, they need a system that can deliver protection quickly as the crisis worsens.
“Our communities are not asking for charity. They are asking for a system that works at the speed required to deliver protection in the midst of an escalating crisis. The task in Antalya is to deliver it. Not to reopen it.”
Rabuka also said that the ocean must remain at the centre of global climate action.
He adds that existing commitments to protect the ocean must be strengthened, rather than allowing the issue to return to the margins of climate discussions.
More than 30 countries are represented in Funafuti, where leaders are seeing first-hand the challenges facing Tuvalu and other Pacific island nations on the frontline of climate change.
Rabuka said the Pacific was watching what leaders do next.
